Tag Archives: Sohar

Day 264 – Coming to an end

Quite literally...

Quite literally…

Our last day. In Sohar. With Lina and Michael. Having spent a week here when we arrived in Oman and now another week before we leave Oman, it feels like the end of an era. It’s the beginning of the end of our journey. /melodramatic

We took it easy. After a long breakfast, we only went out for sweets and hot chocolate in the afternoon. I had to try the Chocolate Room in Sohar Mall one more time. So we did. And picked up nice Indian take-away on the way back.

Lina still had to mark tests and prepare things for the upcoming school week so Michael, Flo and I played a card game together before ending the evening with more episodes of the Big Bang theory.

Day 260 – Boy Zone

Our first day in Sohar was mostly spent using the power and wifi here. Even though we wrote a lot of the blog entries on the road, we now had to upload them. Commenting about 40 to 50 pictures for each entry took us a while so in the end, we managed four blog posts. Which isn’t bad but still not up to date.

When Lina and Michael returned from school, Flo was invited to Jorge’s place where Michael was headed to jam with Jorge and Todd on their guitars. Flo wanted to check the tank and the tank sensor of the bike and Jorge has tools and space so he offered it. Note: Lina and I were not invited…it was explicitly a boy thing. =P

Day 247 – Gate crashers

The chocolate sponge is done; the chocolate for the mousse layers is waiting...

The chocolate sponge is done; the chocolate for the mousse layers is waiting…

I promise, we did not know about the birthday before we decided to stay another day. When we told Lina and Michael that we would stay one more day before heading for Muscat, they said that today was Eric’s birthday and we were already invited to come along if we were still around. We liked Eric, his wife Emily and the other teachers we have met so far, so we were cautiously looking forward to it.

Going to any kind of celebration of people we have just met is always a bit stressful for us. Nina decided to fight this by channeling her anxiety into baking. This time we were prepared, though, and the triple chocolate birthday and goodbye cake came out pretty good for a spontaneous bake.

Isn't that amazing?

Isn’t that amazing?

The rest of the day was filled by active relaxing – a lot of TV on my part and sleeping for Nina. We also tried to tidy up the house a little (our mess, of course) to make it nice for our hosts when they come off work. Around 6.30 pm, they came home and everyone was ready to leave for the party.

The birthday was really nice. Our friends’ friends are pretty much all lovely, but probably the real kicker for us was that we had 80% introverts. I feel, that is just the right mix for any social gathering. Lorie Ann especially turned out to be blessed with a delightful sense of humor. The real star was the food, though. Eric’s wife Emily has outdone herself in my opinion with 27(!) different dips to go with the fresh fruit, veg, crackers and bread. It was a feast!

Nina’s comment: So.much.food. There was so much to try that by the time you were through once, there was barely enough room in the belly left to double up on your favourites. And there were dessert dips as well, including salted caramel, a key lime pie dip (my favourite!) and a whisky dip that had it in it. Our chocolate cake and Todd and Megan’s ice cream went well with everything else on offer, especially combined with the cookie dough dip…

And this is just the table with savoury dips...I had no time to take one of the sweet version of it =P

And this is just the table with savoury dips…I had no time to take one of the sweet version of it =P

Honorable mention needs to go out to their cat Solo. A rescued street urchin, he definitively provided ample entertainment for the night.

We also got to have a good chat with Jorge and his wife Abby. They aptly came to the gathering on Jorge’s KTM 950 Adventure (which he insists, he bought for his wife – to be pillion. His other bike is a single seat … 😉 ). He even was kind enough to bring and lend us one can of chain lube, which we forgot to buy in Dubai. Legend.

That was it then – our time in Sohar was almost up. Tomorrow, we will leave for Muscat.

 

 

Day 240 – Exploring Sohar

look at all this food - wohoo!

look at all this food – wohoo!

It was late yesterday…for Lina and Michael who waited for us to arrive and for us who needed to ride to Sohar and clear a border in between. Thus, we were all rightly tired and took it slow. The best start into the day is a rich and long breakfast so Lina did her best to impersonate her parents who have perfected that art. What I am trying to say: Breakfast was amazing. From a breakfast egg to fresh bread to the veggie platter. As always, I ate too much and as Michael put it, breakfast took three hours. 🙂

By the time we were ready to explore Sohar, it was 1pm. Sohar is not really a tourist destination as we found out when we looked for things to do on the Lonely Planet website. To be honest, it asked us if we’d “gone off the beaten track?”. However, there are still things to look at so we started with a trip to the ocean. When we had looked at the temperature in Oman last week, it was around 25 degrees but today, the car showed a lovely 34 degrees outside. Lina and Michael assured us that it changed only a day ago but such is our luck…it is hot here as well.

These things looks the same all around the world ...

These things looks the same all around the world …

After a stroll along the beach, we drove to a Portuguese fort. There are renovations going on at the moment so it was closed to the public but we still managed to take some lovely shots of it.

The next attraction on the list was Sohar’s only mall. Recently, a “Chocolate Room” has opened there (Lina told me this a couple of weeks ago) so it was definitely a destination. Also, I really needed to keep my eyes open for a headscarf as the improvised black cotton would not do in this weather. So we entered a lovely little shop full of pretty scarfs and traditional male headwear…which were too pricey for us…but Lina said I can have one as a combined birthday gift. 😀 I now got an amazingly pretty, coloured, Kashmir-silk headscarf. So happy!

After this surprising gift, we went to the Chocolate Room and had hot chocolates. Can the day get any better?

Tired, we got home again. Too tired to cook, food (too much of it) was ordered. Well, since a picnic was planned for tomorrow, we were now all set of this as well. 🙂

Day 239 – Customs

We had a great breakfast among Afghan and Pakistani expats in a little restaurant near our hotel. Fresh bread, good coffee and tea all for 7 dirham (less than $3 NZ). Nina wisely ordered a second helping of flat bread to help us through the day should things not go to plan.

Pick-up of our passports with the visa in it!

Pick-up of our passports with the visa in it!

The Iranian embassy was a breeze – half an hour wait and we got our passports with the long desired visas back. We also met another overlander waiting there with us. He actually came from Iran with his family in a big truck but was now in the process of organizing to go back. His story was heartbreaking and another reminder that you just can’t plan for all that can happen on the road.

By the time we dropped off our rental car back at the airport, we had gotten an email status update on the bike. Unfortunately, it was a bit nondescript. Last night we were told it would take at least until noon to get it ready for pick up. Not sure what to do we decided on the half way solution of chilling for another hour and then getting over there to pick it up (which later turned out to have been a bad idea).

We knew that the bike needed to be picked up from cargo village further towards the inner city from the passenger terminal but we had no idea how far it would be. In the end, we decided on public transport because of our bags. After waiting 20 minutes on the right bus, we found out that it was only 5 minutes away. In the bus, I also landed my first cultural faux-pas by plonking down in the women and family section of the bus without realizing it. Another expat in the bus was kind enough to explain and I moved to the back of the bus before collecting a fine.

After wandering a bit in the massive area, we found ourselves in the equally massive customer service area of Emirates SkyCargo. We did not know whether or how much additional fees we would need to pay. 250 dirham was painful but still ok. After that we wandered conveniently over just across the corridor to the Emerati customs office to complete the import formalities.

This is where things went wrong for us. I knew that the U.A.E. is a carnet country and had all our documents ready. What I had not found out in time was that for us to be able to clear customs, I had to have insurance for the bike. The customs officer kindly directed us to a place in the next building where we could browse the internet to try and get Rocinante insured. It was made harder by the fact that we chose not to buy a SIM card for the two days in Dubai (we will sure never make that mistake again). We spent an hour but no insurance I found was willing to insure a non-resident. Defeated, we therefore went back to the customs officer. He was able to help us out and got us in contact with an insurance broker that would sell us one month worth of insurance.

Finally, we had made our way to the insurance company in a mall

Finally, we had made our way to the insurance company in a mall

From there, unfortunately, it took us almost two hours to get to the place where we could buy the insurance. In a series of follies we walked with all our luggage back to the terminal, did not find free WiFi, bought a SIM but realized that activation would take three hours, spent even more money on WiFi and finally hopped into a taxi to what we hoped would be the insurer’s office, with 40 minutes to go before they would close at 4 pm. Luckily, it was close to the airport and we got there in time.

Staff was lovely there and when one of the assistants heard about what we were doing, we got interviewed in-depth to the entertainment of all reception staff. This, together with the insurance certificate really lifted our spirits when we hopped into a taxi back to the Cargo Village.

This time we had all the required documents, but it was getting late. There had been a shift change in the meantime and the new customs officer got right to work. As often on our trip, we realized soon that we were the big exception in the way we travel. Having to deal with carnets does not seem to happen often. After the initial paperwork and payment of another 35 dirham, we were directed to the warehouse for a final inspection and to collect the stamps in the carnet.

Rocinante being delivered to us. Right afterwards, I was told off for taking pictures

Rocinante being delivered to us. Right afterwards, I was asked not to take any more pictures.

After all was said and done, the warehouse foreman looked at me and asked where my pick-up transport would be to get the bike delivered to. When I pointed at the bike he was confused, but soon I could get across that I was indeed intend on assembling the bike and riding it out. They dropped the pallet with the bike on an empty space outside and I got to work.

Nina’s worries that we would not be able to put the bike together were quickly dispersed. A bunch of warehouse workers were eager and helpful in uncrating and assembling the bike. By the time we finished, it was quarter to seven and the sun was about to set. What should we do?

I was keen on getting on the road. After putting Lina and Michael’s address into the GPS, I even thought we should stick with our initial plan and ride there all the way. After all, it was only 230 km. The only uncertainty was if the border would be open all night. Riding in the dark was far less of an issue. We saw from the plane that all major highways are lit at night.

Roadside fast food...really necessary as we skipped lunch

Roadside fast food…really necessary as we skipped lunch

We rode out of the Cargo Village and stopped at the next petrol station to fill up. The attached Pizza Hut provided the long overdue dinner and a chance to check with Lina regarding the border. By now, our phone was activated and we had 3G – wohoo! The border turned out to be open 24/7, so by 7.15 pm we were finally on our way (we planned to leave at 2 pm).

Just as we were finally cruising on the motorway, another issue came up. The ABS light was on and I suddenly realised why: The front sensor was not working … because I put the front wheel in the wrong way. So we pulled over in front of some car wash places and with the help of some volunteered Indian expats flipped the front wheel around in record time.

The road was smooth, in perfect condition and well lit.

Good roads, well lit, almost no traffic. We made good progress

Good roads, well lit, almost no traffic. We made good progress

We made it to the U.A.E. border in a little bit more than an hour. Leaving took a bit of time since we only found out after getting our passport stamped that the customs check point was actually before the immigration one.

Next up was Oman. The visa on arrival was straight forward – if a little painful for our strained wallets at this point. We decided to play it safe and went for the 30 day visa instead of the 10 day one. One last check of our bike insurance and we finally made it through at 11.45 pm.

Knackered but happy we arrived at our friends’ place. With just a hint of terror, we pushed the door bell of the flat we thought would be the right one. Luckily, regarding that it was 12.30 am, it was the right one. We got a warm welcome and collapsed soon after into an incredibly comfortable bed …